FLF Network Show Video - Being Obsolete is Not a Christian Virtue

Hello there, this is A .D. Robles, and you're listening to A .D. on the Fight, Laugh, Feast Network. Alright, alright, well before we get started today, I just wanted to remind everybody, if you haven't done so already, please consider becoming a Fight, Laugh, Feast Club member.

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All of Christ for all of life. Fight, Laugh, Feast. That's what I'm talking about. Now let's get into today's episode. I was actually, I was going back and forth about the topic for today. And I almost did one.

I almost did a show today about intelligence, which is a very controversial issue. Intelligence, the difference between being smart and stupid and how that's used as a weapon. Being smart is used as a weapon, but also being stupid is used as a weapon today.

We'll get to that. I think it's a good topic, but I need to noodle with it a little bit more. Every time I tried to record on it, I kept getting sidetracked and stuff like that. But what I want to talk about today is actually something I made a video about earlier this week.

If you follow me on YouTube, I did a video about a report that the ERLC, Russell Moore's organization, came out with. About how to be a good Christian in a politically divided time. That's what the report was about.

It was mostly a joke video because in that report, he says that you shouldn't get your news from YouTube. He doesn't like YouTube in the report. And what I found ironic about this was that he actually introduced this report to the world on his terrible YouTube channel.

So my joke was that he doesn't want you getting your news on YouTube because his YouTube isn't doing very well. But I want to talk about this a little bit more seriously because this is actually a serious thing, I think, for Christians.

YouTube and social media, how do we use these tools? Should we use these tools? And things like that. And I want to start this conversation off by showing you something. So if you're only listening, you'll be able to see this on YouTube.

But on podcasts, I'll just describe it. What I have in my hands here is a JCPenney catalog from 1993. It's the Christmas catalog from JCPenney from 1993. I used to love getting these. This was like one of the highlights of my year when I was a kid.

Do you guys remember getting these? I sure do, man. I own this because I enjoy the nostalgia. I look through this. I look at all the toys. Look at this. Remember these Tiger games? These things cost 20 bucks, man.

What a ripoff. These things are horrible. Tiger Electronics. Wow. I used to love the video game section. Oh, here's Sega Genesis. I used to love Sega Genesis. Look at that. Sonic the Hedgehog. All that.

I used to look through this, and I just would dream about being as excited as the kids in this. Look at this. I always wanted these blocks. I never had those blocks. But these kids look excited, man. It's pretty awesome.

Oh, look at the back here. This is great. Look at this camera. It costs 600 bucks. My webcam costs 50 bucks. Times have changed, man. Times have changed. But this is an obsolete thing. We still get catalogs, of course.

But look at this. You paid $4 for this catalog. You paid $4 to JCPenney for the right to browse through their products. That is interesting. That is an obsolete method of selling things. We still get catalogs, of course.

People still use obsolete methods because they're still effective to a degree. But nowadays, man, you want to peruse products? You just go to Amazon. You go to eBay. EBay and Amazon, man. Just go there.

There's millions and millions of products. It's free. You don't have to pay $4 for a catalog. And you could look at things from the past, from the future, from the present. Maybe not from the future. You can't look at future products.

But this thing only sells what's hot now, right? That's what this is for, so you can see what's the hot toy now. But on Amazon and eBay, you can look at toys from the 70s earlier. You can look at toys now, and it's just cheap, and it's effective and efficient.

Man, this is an obsolete technology, the catalog. It's weird to think of a catalog as a piece of technology, but it is. I was on a call yesterday. And let me tell you, because none of us are immune to this idea of thinking in obsolete ways.

I was on a call yesterday. A customer of mine wanted me to join him on this sales call. And the guy who was doing the sales call was clearly a millennial. He spoke with kind of like millennial accent.

We all know what that is. And the technology that he was showing us, it's a text message technology, where when you're recruiting software engineers or even like anything, like CEOs, customer service representatives, that people respond to text messages much more often and much more quickly than they do anything else.

So if you call a candidate for a CEO position that you're recruiting for, sometimes it's hard to get a call back, right? It's clearly hard to get a call back. Email, same thing. Sometimes it's hard to get someone to open your email or to respond to it.

But text messages are responded to and read at much higher rates and much more quickly than anything else. And the data seems to indicate that this is true. And actually, my anecdotal data for myself, I know that this is true.

When I really need to get a hold of somebody, I text them, and they usually text message me back. But he said something that rubbed me the wrong way. And this is coming from someone who prides himself on, you know, kind of being with the trends a little bit when it comes to technology, especially in the technology of my business, right, recruiting.

He said something that rubbed me the wrong way. He said this. He said, when we approach recruiting and trying to get a hold of people, we should have a text-first mentality, a text-message-first mentality.

And as he's saying this, I'm thinking in my head, that's crazy. That's crazy. Text message? I'm trying to recruit a CEO, and you want me to text message them? And I started thinking in my head, that just doesn't make any sense.

I'll use text messages, but I'm going to email first, of course. I'm going to call. And as I'm thinking this, the customer who wanted me to join him on this call stopped the call. He said, guys, I want to put a fine point on this.

This is what he says. He interrupts the call. He interrupts the millennial, and he says this. He says, I'm old enough to remember when emails were introduced. And he said this. He said, when I was told about emails, my first thought was, that's nice and all.

I'm going to use emails, but I'm always going to send a paper letter first. Nothing's going to replace that. It's more personal. It's much more likely to get written. No way am I going to replace, I'm going to have an email-first mentality.

No way. He said to us, he says, I'm sure a lot of you are thinking the same thing right now. And I'm not saying that this text-message thing is definitely going to replace emails. But what I am saying is, you should give it a shot.

If the data is saying that this is something that's effective, let's go with what the data says as opposed to what your gut says. And so he guessed what I was thinking. Exactly. He guessed exactly what I was thinking.

And so I was thinking in a way that if I continued thinking that way, I would have been obsolete. I would have been thinking in an obsolete way. And so anyway, here's why I'm bringing this up. Because print media, I don't think it's ever going to go away completely.

Let's just be honest. Print media is not going to go away completely. But in some ways, print media is obsolete. People are getting their news from video, from podcast, from other kinds of media, new media, and that's just all there is to it.

So we shouldn't fight that. We should not fight that. It's stupid to try to fight something that's just happening. And so let's read this ERLC report. Let's read the mentions of social media and YouTube and see how it's presented here.

And again, YouTube is only mentioned four times in this article. But I want you to hear the thrust of the argument here. Here it is. It says this. It says, Those who primarily get their news from social media or other online image or video-based sources, especially YouTube, scored lower on the civility index.

Text-based media is, by comparison, more informationally dense and thus closer to education and further from entertainment. It is a very cool medium emotionally speaking, in Andy Crouch's words, who is a partner for theology and culture at Praxis, a medium almost designed not to engage us emotionally.

And so the idea here is that print media is not trying to get the emotional juices flowing. It's just trying to educate you. And YouTube and social media is just trying to get your emotional juices flowing.

It's not supposed to be educational. Okay, so that's the thrust there. Here we go. The next mention. It says, Half of our respondents check Facebook several times per day and one quarter visit YouTube with the same frequency.

Despite that, respondents were extraordinarily negative about the impact of TV, websites, and social media. The next one says this. Andy Crouch was especially concerned that image-based media like TV, YouTube, and most social media is emotionally powerful and designed for outrage amplification.

Here's the fourth mention of YouTube. And this is the one that really matters. This is the recommendations that the ERLC is giving you. If you want to be a good Christian, a civil, polite, respectable Christian in politics, here's what they say you should do.

Ready? Here's the first thing they say. Number one, get your news from print media. It is good civic hygiene to stay informed about current events. TV and social media are bad at this. They seem better suited to entertainment and superficial connections with friends, respectively.

Avoid TV news and talk shows. Subscribe to a newspaper or a news magazine and do not debate politics over Facebook or Twitter. Do not use late-night comedy or YouTube shows as your primary source of news.

That's what he says. Okay. So here's the reality here. So print media and news media is being presented as the better alternative to YouTube, podcast, social media, and other things like it, TV, things like that.

It's not that they're saying that print media is completely innocent or completely neutral, but what they're saying is it's preferable because print doesn't get your emotional juices flowing. Images do.

Images do. So if you want to be, you know, self-controlled, you want to be good and civil. In fact, it said, like, you score lower on the civility index, whatever the heck that's supposed to mean, right?

The civility index if you don't watch YouTube. So that's the thing. YouTube bad, print media good. This is essentially the argument here. And the reality is that this is a call for Christians to be obsolete.

It's just that simple. It's a call for Christians to remain obsolete because the reality is that the trends are that print media is still here. It's not going away, but people are getting their news elsewhere.

They're not subscribing to the Washington Post at the rates that they used to, especially younger people. They're just not doing it. They're not doing it. And so the reality is that for good or for ill, whatever, okay, that's fine.

And so what should Christians do? Well, the ERLC is saying, go with the old way, go with the old way, because you know what? It makes you more civil. And that's actually the goal of Christianity to be civil, right?

You see, this is so interesting to me because in the Bible, we actually have evidence that there's nothing new under the sun, man. There is nothing new under the sun. This is 2 Corinthians 10, okay? 2 Corinthians 10.

And here's how Paul the apostle starts, right? He says, I, Paul, myself entreat you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ, I who am humble when face to face with you, but bold toward you when I am away.

So here's the thing. We have evidence in the Bible, and this is part of it, right, that Paul wrote in a more emotionally sort of charged and bold and aggressive kind of way than he spoke with people. He was actually more meek when he spoke with you.

So when he wrote you, you get this idea that he's like this ferocious guy, and he's going to call you out, and he's going to be bold and aggressive towards you. When you read his writing, that's what you think, and then you meet him, and he's like meek, and he's kind of like gentle, and he's kind of humble is what he says.

And so there's a disconnect there, right? So there's almost like a lack of civility in his writing that he had when he met you face to face. I'm not saying it's exactly the same thing, but that's essentially what he's saying here.

The boldness didn't carry over necessarily to his face to face, and he must be talking about his attitude or his demeanor as opposed to his beliefs because it's not like he changed his beliefs from writing to talking, right?

We don't want to say that. So when he was in a remote capacity, because here's the thing. Back in Paul's day, he used the most remote technology he could. He couldn't jump on Skype. He couldn't jump on a Zoom call.

The only thing he could do remotely was write a letter. And so there was a difference between Paul's writing and the way he spoke. And likewise, there is a difference when you watch someone on YouTube than when you read their writing.

I don't think that anyone can question that. But is that difference inherently something that Christians need to avoid? I mean, this is the argument that's being made here. If you want to be civil and all Christians want to be civil, then read the Washington Post or read the Wall Street Journal or read the New York Times because that's really where you can get your education.

That's where you can get the news. But if you get your news from a guy on YouTube, well, that's kind of inherently going to make you less civil. It's going to inherently be a problem. And that's a really weird way to look at it.

It's a call to remain obsolete. Because if we want to reach and speak to millennials, whether or not you like YouTube or YouTube is your cup of tea or Facebook or whatever, the reality is we should not abandon that to the kingdom of Satan, should we?

Should we? And here's the other thing, too. Like I find this so amazing, especially how emotionally manipulative a guy like Russell Moore often is, right? He pulls on your emotional heartstrings all the time.

He does it intentionally. And I've often said that there's nothing wrong with emotions. We just shouldn't let emotions rule. But emotions are good. It's good for me to get your emotional juices going.

It's good for me to express anger at something that you should be angry at, right? Like do we need to be cold and clinical when we read stories about abortion, which is an absolute horror? Like do we need to be cold and clinical about this?

Or is it better if we have some emotional juices flowing when we understand that kids are being ripped from their mother's womb and our tax dollars are paying for it? I ask you, is civility a goal for a Christian?

I mean, the Bible does talk about as long as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. Okay, understandable. But do we need to be civil when babies are being ripped from the womb? Do we need to be civil about that?

Do we need to be cold and clinical like Spock about that? I ask you, what is the problem with watching a video or listening to a podcast or looking at a meme or something like that about a topic that is completely outrageous and feeling outraged?

There's nothing wrong with that. There's nothing wrong with that. There are times for outrage. There are times for anger. There are times for emotions to have an impact on you. I always say this. I always say we shouldn't let emotions take over our lives, but there's a place for them.

Absolutely. And so here's the reality, right? Here's the reality. Why would the ERLC put this kind of stuff out? Why would they say this? I think it's pretty clear why they would say this kind of stuff.

Because little YouTubers like me and people that have taken advantage of the technology that's currently available to them today are having an impact that they don't like. They don't like it. They don't like it.

And look, I'm not all about the rage clicks. I'm not all about outrage and stuff like that. I have a good time. I laugh about things. We make jokes. And I do seek to entertain in some of the information that I provide.

But to pretend like those who seek to entertain you can't also be giving you a valid message, which that's true, that's full of information, and all it really is is just getting your emotional juices flowing and there's really no education in it, that's naive.

And that's displaying a mindset that is becoming obsolete. You are becoming obsolete. If you think that print media is the way to go, and this is the real civil and true and good and honest way of communicating.

And video and social media and internet and YouTube and stuff like this, this is the heathen way to communicate messages and truths. I mean, you will become obsolete. I've made this argument before, and I'm going to probably put the link to this video in this podcast.

But I believe that the Gospel Coalition is becoming obsolete. I believe that a lot of these organizations, the ERLC, they're becoming obsolete. Do not become obsolete with them. There is nothing in the Bible that says print is to be preferred over video.

Just like there's nothing in the Bible that says that civility is the ultimate goal when you're engaged in politics with the heathens. I mean, show me where it is. I mean, yes, live at peace with all men as long as it depends on you.

Sometimes it doesn't depend on us. Listen, listen, a good godly man, and I think we can prove this from the scriptures, a good godly man doesn't go out looking for a fight, right? Doesn't go out looking for a fight.

But when the fight comes to him, he can destroy with the best of them. He can destroy and demolish and be a complete savage with the best of them. That's the reality. See, men of God are dangerous. They're not safe.

But they prefer peace. Men of God are dangerous and will demolish all the strongholds of the enemy if necessary. But they prefer to live at peace. You see, that 2nd Corinthians verse that I quoted a second ago, it goes on.

It goes on, and he says this, Though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. The weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience.

These are the words of someone who understands that he's in a war. And a godly man is ready to demolish and destroy every lofty opinion that's raised up against the knowledge of God. Not to be civil with them.

Don't become obsolete at the ERLC. That's another good reason to support the Fight, Laugh, Feast Network. Because we will not become obsolete. We're not going to just do things the way things have always been done.

We're not going to subscribe to the Washington Post for goodness sake. We're not going to do it. Anyway, I hope this has been helpful. God bless. Don't forget to tune in next week on Thursday for AD on the Fight, Laugh, Feast Network.